Non-Pauli Effects from Noncommutative Spacetimes

Noncommutative spacetimes lead to nonlocal quantum field theories (qft's) where spin-statistics theorems cannot be proved. For this reason, and also backed by detailed arguments, it has been suggested that they get corrected on such spacetimes leading to small violations of the Pauli principle. In a recent paper \cite{Pauli}, Pauli-forbidden transitions from spacetime noncommutativity were calculated and confronted with experiments. Here we give details of the computation missing from this paper. The latter was based on a spacetime $\mathcal{B}_{\chi\vec{n}}$ different from the Moyal plane. We argue that it quantizes time in units of $\chi$. Energy is then conserved only mod $\frac{2\pi}{\chi}$. Issues related to superselection rules raised by non-Pauli effects are also discussed in a preliminary manner.Comment: 15 Pages, 1 Table, Full details and further developments of arXiv:1003.2250. This version is close to the one accepted by JHE

Prevalence and Risk Factors of Irritable Bowel Syndrome in Female Students of Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences from Umm Al Qura University

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) means that the bowel doesn't work or function correctly. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and factors affected irritable bowel syndrome among university students. The present study was carried out during the period from 1432 to 1433 AH among 200 female students. Data was collected through a interview questionnaire Rome III Diagnostic Questionnaires. The present study indicated that mean ± SE values of height, weight and BMI were not significant change in non- IBS and IBS students. The frequency distribution of IBS according to the family number, data showed that 4 %, 6%, 8% and 35% of students live with three, four, five and more than of five members had IBS, respectively. Data with regard to abdominal pain or discomfort in the last three months showed that 30 ,32, 40, 20, 31 and 17 students chooses less than 1d/m, 2 to 3 d/m, 1d/w, more than 1 d/w and every day, respectively. There were 7% was often feel discomfort and have less frequent bowel movement, 13% was feel discomfort in most of the time and have less frequent bowel movement and 6% was always feel discomfort and have less frequent bowel movement. Result showed that 21, 19 and 1% of IBS were eating one, two and three snack foods, respectively, while 7% were eating one, two and three meals out the home daily. Conclusion: Our results concluded that food habits, mother's education, snacks numbers, favorite method of cooking and awareness of food causes had effect on IBS. Keywords: Irritable bowel disorder – Causes– Syndrome – Criteria

Inverse modeling of cloud-aerosol interactions – Part 1: Detailed response surface analysis

This is the final version of the article. Available from EGU via the DOI in this record.New methodologies are required to probe the sensitivity of parameters describing cloud droplet activation. This paper presents an inverse modeling-based method for exploring cloud-aerosol interactions via response surfaces. The objective function, containing the difference between the measured and model predicted cloud droplet size distribution is studied in a two-dimensional framework, and presented for pseudo-adiabatic cloud parcel model parameters that are pair-wise selected. From this response surface analysis it is shown that the susceptibility of cloud droplet size distribution to variations in different aerosol physiochemical parameters is highly dependent on the aerosol environment and meteorological conditions. In general the cloud droplet size distribution is most susceptible to changes in the updraft velocity. A shift towards an increase in the importance of chemistry for the cloud nucleating ability of particles is shown to exist somewhere between marine average and rural continental aerosol regimes. We also use these response surfaces to explore the feasibility of inverse modeling to determine cloud-aerosol interactions. It is shown that the "cloud-aerosol" inverse problem is particularly difficult to solve due to significant parameter interaction, presence of multiple regions of attraction, numerous local optima, and considerable parameter insensitivity. The identifiability of the model parameters will be dependent on the choice of the objective function. Sensitivity analysis is performed to investigate the location of the information content within the calibration data to confirm that our choice of objective function maximizes information retrieval from the cloud droplet size distribution. Cloud parcel models that employ a moving-centre based calculation of the cloud droplet size distribution pose additional difficulties when applying automatic search algorithms for studying cloud-aerosol interactions. To aid future studies, an increased resolution of the region of the size spectrum associated with droplet activation within cloud parcel models, or further development of fixed-sectional cloud models would be beneficial. Despite these improvements, it is demonstrated that powerful search algorithms remain necessary to efficiently explore the parameter space and successfully solve the cloud-aerosol inverse problem.We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Bert Bolin Centre for Climate research. We gratefully appreciate G. J. Roelofs, IMAU, Utrecht, the Netherlands, for providing us with the pseudo-adiabatic cloud parcel model used in this study. We gratefully acknowledge Hamish Struthers valuable discussions and his help to improve the readability of the manuscript. Some of the calculations made during the course of this study have been made possible using the LISA cluster from the SARA centre for parallel computing at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. AS acknowledges support from an Office of Naval Research YIP award (N00014-10-1-0811).The authors acknowledge the Swedish Environmental Monitoring Program a

L-karnitin ublažava hepatotoksičnost bisfenola A aktiviranjem Nrf2 i inhibicijom proupalne ekspresije gena citokina u štakora

Bisphenol, used in many polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins industries, exerts toxic effects on mammalian organs. The mechanisms underlying bisphenol toxicity are well understood, however the chemoprevention effects of L-carnitine have not yet been recorded. This study aimed to explore the protective mechanism of L-carnitine against BPA-induced hepatotoxicity. Male rats were randomly distributed into 4 groups of 10 rats each: vehicle (5 mL corn oil/kg), bisphenol (50 mg/kg b.w. orally), L-carnitine (500 mg/kg b.w. i/p), and L-carnitine bisphenol pre-treated groups. Bisphenol was dissolved in corn oil and gavaged for 70 consecutive days. Up-regulation of tumor necrosis factor (6.6-fold), and interleukin 6 (3.2-fold) mRNA transcript, along with suppression of nuclear factor erythroid 2-like 2 (0.4-fold), were recorded, following bisphenol administration. Subsequently, bisphenol provoked oxidative stress and attenuated the antioxidative molecules. Finally, hepatic dysfunction was assessed by elevated serum aminotransferases, alkaline phosphatase, lactate dehydrogenase, glutamyl transferase activities and ammonia levels, with the subsequent decline in serum albumin concentration, which confirmed the inflammatory cell infiltration and hydropic degeneration, and the impairment of lipid profile. Interestingly, co-administration of L-carnitine improved liver function and lipid profile, which was explained by the activation of nuclear factor erythroid 2-like 2 (1.5-fold) mRNA transcript, which augmented the antioxidant levels and suppressed oxidative stress, tumor necrosis factor (2.6- fold), and interleukin 6 (1.5-fold) gene expression. In conclusion, L-carnitine exerted hepatoprotective activity against bisphenol toxicity via antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.Bisfenol, koji se koristi u mnogim industrijama polikarbonatne plastike i epoksidnih smola, ima toksične učinke na organe sisavaca. Mehanizmi na kojima se temelji toksičnost bisfenola dobro su razumljivi, međutim učinci L-karnitina na kemoprevenciju još nisu zabilježeni. Cilj ovog ispitivanja bio je istražiti zaštitni mehanizam L-karnitina protiv hepatotoksičnosti izazvane BPA-om. Mužjaci štakora slučajnim su odabirom podijeljeni u su u 4 skupine od po 10 štakora: kontrolna skupina (5 mL kukuruznog ulja/kg tjelesne težine), duga skupina (50 mg bisfenol/kg tjelesne težine peroralno), teća skupina (500 mg L-karnitin/kg tjelesne težine i/p) i četvrta skupina (L-karnitin apliciran skupini prethodno tretiranoj bisfenolom). Bisfenol je otopljen u kukuruznom ulju kojim su štakori hranjeni 70 uzastopnih dana. Nakon primjene bisfenola zabilježeno je povećanje mRNK transkripta za stvarnje faktora tumorske nekroze i interleukina 6 uz supresiju nukleotidnog faktora sličnog eritroidu 2, povezanog s faktorom 2. Nakon toga bisfenol je izazvao oksidativni stres i oslabio antioksidativne molekule. Naposljetku, disfunkcija jetre procjenjivana je povišenim razinama aminotransferaza u serumu, alkalne fosfataze, laktat dehidrogenaze, aktivnosti glutamiltransferaze i amonijaka, uz naknadno smanjenje koncentracije serumskog albumina, što je potvrdilo infiltraciju upalnih stanica i hidropičnu degeneraciju, te narušavanje lipidnog statusa. Zanimljivo je da je istodobna primjena L-karnitina poboljšala funkciju jetre i lipidni status, što je objašnjeno aktivacijom transkripta mRNK tipa 2 povezanog s faktorom 2, koji je povećao razine antioksidansa i potisnuo oksidativni stres, te ekspresiju gena faktora tumorske nekroze i interleukina 6. Zaključno, L-karnitin je pokazao hepatozaštitnu aktivnost protiv toksičnosti bisfenola antioksidativnim i protuupalnim učincima

Tactual perception: a review of experimental variables and procedures

This paper reviews literature on tactual perception. Throughout this review we will highlight some of the most relevant variables in touch literature: interaction between touch and other senses; type of stimuli, from abstract stimuli such as vibrations, to two- and three-dimensional stimuli, also considering concrete stimuli such as the relation between familiar and unfamiliar stimuli or the haptic perception of faces; type of participants, separating studies with blind participants, studies with children and adults, and an analysis of sex differences in performance; and finally, type of tactile exploration, considering conditions of active and passive touch, the relevance of movement in touch and the relation between exploration and time. This review intends to present an organised overview of the main variables in touch experiments, attending to the main findings described in literature, to guide the design of future works on tactual perception and memory.This work was funded by the Portuguese “Foundation for Science and Technology” through PhD scholarship SFRH/BD/35918/2007

Scale-up and sustainability evaluation of biopolymer production from citrus waste offering carbon capture and utilisation pathway

Invited for this month's cover picture is the group of Dr Miao Guo from Department of Chemical Engineering at the Imperial College London (UK). The cover picture shows modelling research on the co-polymerisation of waste-sourced limonene oxide with CO2 to produce poly(limonene carbonate), which offers a sustainable pathway to achieve carbon capture and utilisation. A computational approach to process design was integrated with sustainability evaluation to model this synthetic pathway and identify the environmental-damaging and performance-limiting steps for further improvement. Our research highlights the potential of closed-loop manufacturing systems with waste recovery, which is instrumental in building a sustainable circular economy

Identification and prioritisation of mine pollution sources in a temperate watershed using tracer injection and synoptic sampling

Identifying and prioritising mine sites for remediation is challenging due to inherently complex hydrological systems and multiple potential sources of mine pollution dispersed across watersheds. Understanding mine pollution dynamics in wet temperate watersheds is particularly challenging due to substantial variability in precipitation and streamflows, which increase the importance of diffuse sources. A tracer dilution and synoptic sampling experiment was conducted in a mined watershed in Scotland to identify the main sources of mine pollution, the relative importance of point and diffuse sources of pollution, and the potential benefits of mine site remediation to stream water quality. Using high spatial resolution metal loading datasets, the major Zn and Cd source areas were identified as point sources of mine water predominantly located in the upper part of the watershed. In contrast, the main sources of Pb were diffuse sources of mine tailings and wastes located in the lower part of the watershed. In the latter case, mobilisation of Pb occurred primarily from a section of braided wetland and an uncapped tailings area. Importantly, diffuse sources of mine pollution were found to be the dominant source of Pb, and an important source of Zn and Cd, even under steady-state streamflow conditions. Mass balance calculations suggest that treatment of the main mine water sources in the upper watershed and capping of the tailings deposit in the lower watershed could reduce stream trace metal concentrations by approximately 70%. These data support the development of conceptual models of mine pollution dynamics in wet temperate watersheds. These conceptual models are important as they: (1) help prioritise those mine sites and features for remediation that will deliver the most environmental and socio-economic benefit, and; (2) provide a means to quantify the importance of diffuse pollution sources that may increase in importance in the future as a result of changes in precipitation patterns in temperate watersheds

Structural Characterization, thermal studies, fluorescence and optical properties of metal carbonyl derivatives of N2O2 Schiff Base

A series of four binuclear complexes [Cr2(CO)2L2] (1), [Mo2O4(L)2] (2), and [W2O4(L)2] (3) [Mo2O5(CO)L].H2O (4) were synthesized from the reaction of [M(CO)6] (M = Cr, Mo and W) with 6,6'-(([1,1'-biphenyl]-4,4' diylbis(azaneylylidene)) bis(methaneylylidene)) bis(2,4-dichlorophenol) H2L in THF. The structures of the ligand and its complexes were characterized using elemental studies, IR, mass, UV-vis and 1H NMR spectroscopy. Magnetic measurements showed diamagnetic properties for molybdenum and tungsten complexes and paramagnetic character for chromium complex. The thermal analyses for all metal complexes were also determined by the thermogravimetry technique. The thermodynamics parameters of complexes were calculated. Spectroscopic data revealed that H2L was coordinated as a tetradentate ligand through two imine nitrogen and two deprotonated phenolic oxygen atoms. The Schiff base ligand (H2L) and its complexes displayed fluorescence properties and can potentially serve as photoactive materials. The values of optical band gap energy (Eg) of the prepared complexes suggested that these compounds could be used as semiconductors